Ren sat quietly on the stone bench, the glowing black roses swaying gently around them like silent witnesses. The violet sky above seemed to press closer, the unfamiliar stars twinkling coldly. After a long moment of contemplation, he turned to Elizabeth.
"Elizabeth… can you tell me more about this forest? Its origin. What it really is. I need to understand where I am."
Elizabeth gazed into the distance for a while, her crimson eyes reflecting the soft bioluminescent glow of the flowers. The night wind carried faint, whispering sounds — almost like distant voices sighing through the trees. She took a slow sip of her tea before speaking, her voice low, melodic, and laced with centuries of sorrow.
"Noctiflora…" she began, the name rolling off her tongue like an ancient spell. "It is far older than most kingdoms. Over a thousand years ago, this forest was known as the 'Elysara Woods' — a place of breathtaking beauty and peace. The trees bloomed with silver and gold leaves year-round. Crystal-clear streams sang through the glades. Flowers glowed with soft, natural magic that healed wounds and lifted spirits. Merchants from distant lands would travel through it on their way to the Kingdom of Valtheris. They called it 'The Garden Path to Heaven.' Many wrote poems and songs about its beauty. Children played safely beneath its canopy. It was a place of wonder."
Her expression darkened.
"But beauty is fragile… and greed is eternal."
Elizabeth's fingers tightened slightly around her cup as she continued, her voice growing heavier.
"Seven hundred years ago, everything changed. A terrible pandemic swept through the Kingdom. It was called 'The Curdled'. It did not simply kill — it corrupted. The sickness began in the blood. People's veins turned black beneath their skin. Their eyes bled. Their minds twisted with madness and unnatural hunger. The air itself became poisonous. Whole villages fell silent overnight."
She paused, letting the horror of it sink in. The glowing flowers around them seemed to dim slightly, as though mourning the memory.
"The source was never truly confirmed… but the rumors pointed to the royal family. They had been conducting forbidden blood rituals in the depths of the palace — trying to achieve immortality, to bind demons, to seize power beyond mortal limits. One of those rituals went catastrophically wrong. The corruption spilled out from the capital and spread like wildfire through the kingdom. Nearly eighty percent of the population died in agony. The survivors… were no longer fully human."
Elizabeth looked directly at Ren, her crimson eyes burning with quiet intensity.
"The forest absorbed it all. The death. The corrupted blood. The screams. The broken magic. Elysara Woods drank the nightmare like a sponge. And in doing so, it transformed. The trees grew twisted and conscious. The flowers began to hunger. The very ground started dreaming — and those dreams became reality for anyone who stepped inside. That is when it earned its true name: Noctiflora— the Forest That Dreams and Devours."
A cold breeze swept through the garden, making the black roses rustle like dry bones.
Elizabeth's voice softened, almost reverent.
"Now it is a living entity. Beautiful in its terror. It feeds on memory, desire, fear, and magic. Some who enter are changed forever. Others are consumed. A few… very few… are allowed to live inside its dreams, like I have. I built this barrier and this cabin as a small sanctuary within its body. But never forget, Ren — we are not truly safe. We are only tolerated."
She reached out and gently touched one of the glowing violet lilies beside the bench. The flower leaned into her touch like a living creature.
"This garden you see… is an illusion I maintain. A beautiful lie inside the jaws of a monster. Noctiflora is always watching. Always hungry. And now… it has you as well."
Elizabeth turned to him fully, her expression grave yet compassionate.
"That is the truth of the forest you now call home."
The night seemed to grow colder as Elizabeth spoke. The glowing flowers around the garden dimmed their light, as though they too were reluctant to hear the rest of the tale. A low wind whispered through the black roses, carrying a faint metallic scent — like old blood.
Elizabeth stared into the distance, her crimson eyes reflecting the faint starlight. Her voice dropped lower, heavier, as if each word cost her something.
"That pandemic… 'The Curdled'… was far worse than any history book would dare record," she said slowly. "What I told you earlier was only the surface. The truth is much more grotesque."
She took a slow breath, her fingers tightening around the edge of the stone bench.
"Those who were infected didn't simply die. They lost their humanity long before death claimed them. The corruption started in the blood, then spread like living rot. Their veins turned black and pulsed visibly beneath the skin. But the worst suffering fell upon the women."
Elizabeth's gaze grew distant, haunted.
"Hundreds of thousands of girls and women perished in agony. Blood poured endlessly from their eyes — thick, black tears that never stopped. It flowed from their nipples in steady streams, soaking their clothes, staining the ground. And from between their legs… from their most intimate places… came rivers of corrupted blood mixed with something far worse."
She paused, her voice turning quieter, almost reverent in its horror.
"Their bodies began to mutate while they were still alive. Mouths — full of sharp, jagged teeth — would rip open across their breasts. Bellies would split open with screaming maws. Their pussies… transformed into grotesque, tooth-lined openings that hungered endlessly. These new mouths would bite and devour anything near them — their own flesh, the people trying to help them, even the ground beneath them. The infected women became walking nightmares, screaming as their bodies betrayed them, consuming themselves from the inside out."
The wind picked up slightly, rustling the black roses violently, as if the garden itself remembered.
Elizabeth continued, her tone grim.
"The kingdom was on the verge of total collapse. But in their desperation, the royal mages performed one final forbidden ritual. They channeled the entire corruption — every scream, every drop of corrupted blood, every mutated body — and pushed it outward. They fed the entire nightmare into the forest."
Her crimson eyes met Ren's with solemn intensity.
"Elysara Woods devoured it all. It drank the corrupted blood, swallowed the mutated flesh, absorbed the screams and the madness. In doing so, the forest saved the kingdom… but it paid the price. It became Noctiflora. A living, dreaming entity forever changed by that horror. The trees grew conscious and cruel. The flowers learned to hunger. The very soil began to birth new abominations. That is why this forest is so dangerous. It still carries the memory of that pandemic. It still hungers for what it once consumed."
Elizabeth reached out and gently touched Ren's hand, her voice softening just a fraction.
"That is the true origin of the place you now live in. A beautiful garden built on top of an ancient graveyard of suffering. We are sitting inside the dream of a monster that once saved a kingdom by eating its nightmares."
The glowing flowers around them swayed in eerie unison, almost as if listening. A distant, faint scream echoed from deep within the forest — too far to be real, yet too clear to ignore.
Elizabeth looked at Ren with quiet gravity.
"Now you understand why I built this barrier. And why I live here alone… until you fell into my life."
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